Board and Train in Scottsdale: Cost and Timeline

If you are searching for board and train in Scottsdale, you want three answers, not a sales pitch: what it costs, how long your dog will be gone, and what happens each day while they are there. Here is that breakdown, pulled straight from our own published pricing, for all three boarded camps we run out of our Scottsdale and Cave Creek campuses.

How Much Does Board and Train Cost in Scottsdale?

Board and train in Scottsdale runs from $3,509 to $8,929, depending on which camp your dog needs and how long the stay is. There is no single number, because Partners Dogs runs three different camps on purpose: a shorter stay for general obedience, and two longer stays built for behavior work. Here is what each one costs, straight from our published pricing page:

• Foundation Camp, 14 nights boarded in a private luxury suite: $3,509, about $11 an hour of care and training.
• Behavior Camp, 21 nights boarded: $6,244, about $17.50 an hour of dedicated behavior work.
• Transform Camp, 28 nights boarded: $8,929, about $17.80 an hour of our most intensive training.

Prices shown reflect 2026 rates and can change; see the current pricing page for today's numbers.

None of those numbers is a bare boarding rate. Every camp bundles the boarded stay itself, private family lessons, weeks of follow-up days, and a run of group classes into one price. That is why the per-hour figure runs far lower than a single boarding night or a single private lesson would cost on its own. Foundation Camp's price breaks down into the boarded stay and suite, the follow-up days, and the included classes, with the exact split on the pricing page. Behavior Camp and Transform Camp break down the same way, just longer. A deposit holds your dates, with roughly half due at check-in and the balance due at pickup; the current deposit amount is on the pricing page.

Foundation, Behavior, or Transform: Which Camp Fits Your Dog

The camp you need depends on what your dog is dealing with, not how badly you want it fixed. Foundation Camp is the 14-night option for puppies, adolescents, and dogs that are generally fine but need real obedience: a dog that does not listen off leash, jumps on guests, or has no working sit, down, place, or heel. If that sounds like your dog, our everyday listening help spoke covers the same ground in more depth.

Behavior Camp steps up to 21 nights for reactivity, anxiety, fear, and destructive behavior: the dog that lunges at the end of the leash (see our leash-reactive dog help), panics at the vacuum, or shreds furniture when left alone. Transform Camp is 28 nights, reserved for aggression, a documented bite history, or severe fear and reactivity. Those are the cases covered on our dog aggression assessment page. Both Behavior Camp and Transform Camp require a PD360 Assessment before you can enroll. Foundation Camp does not, you can book it directly off an introductory lesson at either campus.

If you are not sure which bucket your dog falls into, that uncertainty is normal, and it is exactly what the assessment covered later in this article is for.

How Long Board and Train Really Takes, Start to Finish

The nights your dog is boarded are only part of the timeline. What happens after pickup, and which camp you are in, matters just as much. Foundation Camp is a 14-night boarded stay, then 16 DaySchool days that you use over the following weeks at whatever pace fits your schedule, plus 8 group classes to keep building on the skills.

Behavior Camp and Transform Camp are built differently, and it matters. Both run as a 12 to 16 week arc that includes the boarded stay plus structured follow-up coaching once your dog is home, not a board-and-train that ends the day your dog is picked up. Behavior Camp is 21 nights boarded, followed by 16 DayCamp follow-up days and 8 group classes. Transform Camp is 28 nights boarded, followed by 24 DayCamp follow-up days, 12 group classes, and an in-home follow-up visit. The 12 to 16 week range exists because dogs do not generalize a new behavior on identical schedules. A dog with one clear trigger and a consistent household often lands toward the shorter end. A dog with several triggers, or a household that needs more coaching to stay consistent, runs longer. That is normal, and it is exactly why the follow-up weeks exist.

What a Day at Camp Looks Like

Every day at camp follows the same basic shape: structured training, calm downtime, and supervised play, with the specifics shifting to match the camp. Your dog works focused sessions with a trainer, then practices holding a calm place or crate stay on the training floor between sessions, what our staff call modeling, before moving into supervised play with other dogs at a matched energy level.

• Foundation Camp dogs come in for a weekly 30 to 60 minute demo, so you can watch progress and start learning the handling yourself.
• Behavior Camp dogs work daily structured sessions built around the triggers identified at assessment, with demos that include a working demo where you see the new response in action.
• Transform Camp dogs train daily with senior trainers and get two working demos across the 28 nights, since crisis-level cases need more repetition to hold.

Every boarded dog at Partners Dogs is supervised at one trainer for every 10 dogs, a ratio well ahead of the 20 to 50 dogs per handler that some larger Phoenix-area daycare-style facilities run. That ratio is what lets a trainer actually catch the moment a dog is about to escalate or shut down, instead of managing a room too large to watch closely. At check-in, staff also confirm your dog's vaccination records, which is standard for every camp regardless of length.

The Handoff: Why Your Sessions Are the Program, Not an Extra

The single biggest reason board and train gets a bad reputation is a program that hands a trained dog back to an untrained owner and calls it done. That is not how any Partners Dogs camp works. Every camp includes private family lessons built into the price, from 4 for Foundation Camp up to 6 for Transform Camp, plus group classes and weeks of follow-up days afterward. As our trainers put it plainly, 90 percent of the job is training you, because a dog that only listens to a trainer has not actually learned anything that survives the drive home.

Transform Camp goes a step further with an in-home follow-up visit: a dog with a bite history or severe reactivity needs the plan tested against your actual front door, your actual yard, and your actual routine, not a generic script. The transition lesson at the end of every camp walks you through exactly what your dog has learned, the cues and handling your trainer used, and what to expect in the first weeks home. Skipping those sessions, or treating them as optional, is the fastest way to lose the progress your dog just built. Families notice the difference: Partners Dogs holds a 4.8-star rating across more than 2,000 reviews, many of them from board and train families describing exactly this kind of handoff.

What Board and Train Will Not Fix

Board and train changes behavior, it does not change biology, and being honest about that upfront saves families disappointment later. A dog with a medical condition driving the behavior (pain, a thyroid issue, a neurological problem) needs a veterinarian involved before or alongside training, not instead of it. If your dog's behavior seems sudden or out of character, that is worth a vet visit, not just a camp booking.

• No camp is a permanent cure. Aggression and severe reactivity get managed and meaningfully reduced through structure and trained alternatives, not erased as if the history never happened.
• Camp does not replace your follow-through. The gains your dog makes during the boarded stay hold because of the private lessons, classes, and follow-up days after, not instead of them.
• It is not a fit for every case on day one. Some dogs need the general obedience of Foundation Camp before a behavior-specific camp would even make sense, and a straight-to-camp phone booking cannot tell the difference the way an in-person assessment can.

Recall problems are a good example of where expectations need to be realistic. Board and train builds a strong recall foundation, our recall help spoke covers what that looks like day to day, but a dog that has practiced ignoring you for years off leash still needs consistent reinforcement at the park or the trailhead after camp, not a switch that flips permanently the day training ends.

How Progress Gets Measured With PD360

Behavior Camp and Transform Camp placement is not a guess made over the phone, it is set by a real assessment. The PD360 Assessment price is on the pricing page, with a lower rate for a second dog in the same household, and it is credited toward camp enrollment if you enroll the same day. It runs more than 4 hours with your dog plus an hour with you, and it is what tells us which camp actually fits, and why, before either of us commits to a price.

The assessment also sets your dog's starting point in our PD360 Pet Progress Tracking System, so the change your dog makes during the boarded stay is measured against a concrete baseline instead of a trainer's general impression at pickup. That is also how we can tell you, before you book, whether Behavior Camp is enough or whether a case needs the longer runway of Transform Camp.

Booking, Vaccinations, and What to Pack

Booking starts with an introductory visit, not a form you fill out blind. Foundation Camp starts with an assessment and check-in at our Scottsdale campus or our Cave Creek campus, where a trainer meets your dog, collects vaccination records and history, and locks in your goals. Behavior Camp and Transform Camp start with the PD360 Assessment instead, which covers the same ground in more depth. Either way, current vaccination records are checked at check-in for every camp, so have those ready before your dog's stay begins.

• A deposit holds your dates and is nonrefundable, since it blocks trainer time on the calendar; the current amount is on the pricing page.
• Roughly half the camp price is typically due at check-in, with the balance due at pickup.
• Cancellations are handled as store credit, not a cash refund. Give 48 hours of notice or more and you receive credit toward a future program, class, or service.
• Pack your dog's regular food for the length of the stay, any current medication with clear instructions, and a favorite toy or blanket if it helps your dog settle. Our team will tell you exactly what else to bring at check-in.